Thursday, February 19, 2009

Sin and Shame


The latest issue of the Jesuit run Indian magazine, “The New Leader” carries a lead article on hat it calls the growing phenomena of “Drinking as a subculture of Priests”. The article begins with the candid admission that alcoholism thrives in shadows, secrets and silence. And then goes on to say that alcoholism thrives because alcoholics take refuge in shadow land because they are confused scared and above all ashamed.I like the candidness of the article and the willingness to admit that there is a problem and that there is a need to address it and that those affected by alcoholism need to be helped to cope with it and not pushed into the shadows.


The word that most deserves to be coupled with sin is salvation; but the words that typically accompany them are shame, stigma and the world of shadows. at this point, I am not commenting on whether alcoholism is a disease or a sin, but simply commenting on the attitudes of shame and stigma in people who display behaviors that is considered unconventional in a given culture or society.

The church is the community of redeemed sinners, but is often unfortunately the first to put its own fallen comrades into the shadows, and often very publicly. The secular world, which has never seen nor often experienced grace, is often found to be more tolerant; though this tolerance may be more passive tolerance than active assurance and acceptance. How important is grace Vis a Vis the judgment that we often use to push people into the shadows because they have a “problem”? Just how important is grace and acceptance in the church community? Well, the the apostle Paul, in practically all of his greetings, starts off by wishing them grace and peace. God gives us grace, but God also want us to have grace in our lives.

And He also wants us to give grace. As we have received grace in whatever facet, He wants us to give it. How have you experienced it? If you've been through a death-like situation, you're likely to be very encouraging to people who are in a death-like situation. If you've been sick in a particular way, you're probably able to comfort people who are sick in that same way.

It is important to use the grace of God in our lives. And having the grace of God does not mean we still don't fight ourselves, because the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:27, that he had to fight himself and keep himself in check lest after he had preached to others he himself be found a cast-away. The grace of God leads us to exert ourselves in a godly way. It leads us to ask for forgiveness. It leads us to receive forgiveness. It leads you to comfort, console, and give hope, to others.

The New Leader article zeroes in on the particular burden of the priests: they are representatives of the church and the church hierarchy; he often faces extra ostracism if he reveals his situation and suffers in isolation if he doesn’t. It is a bit of a Herculean task I admit; the church is a body of people is called upon to reflect the image of God all right and so what happens when you notice an aberration? What do you do? The New Testament on the odd occasion does recommend the ex communication and disfellowshipping of the odd person; but the end goal is still the same – that the person would be eventually restored into communion and community. Restoration is thus the eventual goal; and there are various methods to pursue this. But the gift of grace has a far larger role in the scheme of God’s things than we are ready to offer it – stigmatization and isolation is a lot simpler to do.

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